


Double Trouble 1 : Bubble Bubble

by iamgizy (saddle_tramp)



Series: Resist 'Verse [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-16
Updated: 2009-02-16
Packaged: 2017-10-15 17:16:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saddle_tramp/pseuds/iamgizy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Double Trouble is a series of stories Jenn (Gwionfawyr) and I wrote together after I finished Resist. We had a <i>lot</i> more that will never see the light of day with anyone but us, but some of them we posted and shared.</p><p>Pairing: mention of Sev/Lily/Lucius, Remus/Barty<br/>Rating: PG-13 for one bad word.<br/>Summary:<br/>Written purely for fun, based on an impromptu RP Jenn and I did one evening when we were thinking 'what if'.... Then this story spawned a whole series. We're crazy that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Double Trouble 1 : Bubble Bubble

 

By the time Harry and Draco turned five, they had been allowed the run of Hogwarts with their chaperone, Dobby, for over a year. The two boys had learned all of the best places to play very quickly, but they still had one problem: Harry and Draco's idea of 'fun' was what their parents called 'getting into serious trouble'.

Harry and Draco soon found themselves with not only Dobby keeping an eye on them, but also a kneazle named Rupert. Uncle Zach -- who wasn't _really_ their uncle at all, like most of their 'relatives' -- had given them the kneazle for their fifth birthday. Rupert was supposed to keep them out of trouble, but making mischief was second nature to him and he quite enjoyed stirring up some fun just as much as the boys did. He had begun aiding and abetting them the very day he was given to them by finding ways to distract Dobby so that the boys could sneak off on their own.

This particular day, Dobby had left them for a moment to clear away their lunch things and the boys seized the chance to go exploring. Rupert got in on the fun and led them a merry chase down the halls before he found a doxy in an empty classroom. Rupert was fascinated by the doxy, which seemed to quite enjoy baiting the kneazle into chasing it.

By the time Dobby finally found them, Harry and Draco were sitting in the middle of the floor laughing while Rupert and the doxy played tag around them. Dobby immediately told them to call Rupert off, but Rupert ignored Harry's giggling plea, instead proceeding to chase the doxy out of the room and down the hallway into the open staff room door.

Harry and Draco hurried down the hall behind Rupert despite Dobby's cries for them to stop. The two boys reached the door just as the doxy flew under Professor McGonagall's skirts. McGonagall squawked indignantly and jumped to her feet when Rupert tried to follow the doxy, waving her hands at him and making shooing noises. She hadn't noticed the doxy fly under her skirts, but it was rather hard to miss an orange kneazle the size of a dog attempting to follow it.

Dobby tried to smile at McGonagall, grabbing for the kneazle as he said fairly calmly, "Rupert is just being after the doxy, Professor. Rupert is only wishing to help."

McGonagall's eyes widened. "What doxy?!" She felt something move against her thigh then and began beating at her skirts, shrieking, "Get it away from me!"

"Don't worry, Minerva. I'll get the little blighter!" yelled Xiomara, the new Quidditch coach. All hell broke loose a moment later when her banishing charm banished McGonagall's dress and petticoats instead, leaving the Deputy Headmistress standing there in antiquated bloomers with a surprised doxy hovering between her knobby knees.

Rupert pounced at the newly-freed doxy and then chased it across the room and into the fireplace. McGonagall drew her own wand and started after Xiomara, cursing fluently in Gaelic and looking murderous while Flitwick and Dumbledore just sat in their chairs laughing uproariously.

Dobby squeaked at the words McGonagall was saying and pushed Harry and Draco out of the room. "Young masters must go and find their mother! Dobby will follow with Rupert. Go!" He gave them a push towards the main hall and then whirled away and went back into the staffroom, closing the door behind him just as Xiomara screeched, "You _wench_! Those were my lucky bloomers!"

Harry and Draco looked at each other, grinning, and then Draco took off with Harry in close pursuit. Their school robes billowed out around their slim bodies as they passed the main stairs, shoes skidding on the stone floors as they rounded a corner and then ran towards the dungeons. Both of them were giggling as they pelted down the stairway much too quickly to be safe, hoping nobody would think to look for them down there.

Draco was running at full-tilt when he caught the edge of the door to the Potions classroom and slid to a stop, laughing. He held out his arm to catch Harry, who hit him hard enough to knock the wind out of them both. They gasped for breath between giggles as they leaned against the doorjamb for a few moments, then Draco grinned at Harry and opened the door. He looked around quickly and then walked into the classroom, heading towards the workbench as Harry followed him inside and shut the door.

Harry trailed Draco across the room, pushing his glasses up his nose and watching Draco pull a chair over to the workbench. "Dray, what are we doing?"

Draco grinned over his shoulder at Harry and then climbed into the chair as he whispered loudly, "Climbing up on the workbench, c'mon!"

Harry waited until Draco was safely up on the workbench and then scrambled into the chair as he asked, "Why?"

"'Cause I wanna see what Papa's got in the big cauldron this time. He's been working on it all day," Draco replied matter-of-factly, offering Harry a hand to help him up on the table. As soon as Harry was up safely on the table, Draco let go and gathered the edges of his robes into his hands so he wouldn't knock anything over as he walked towards the cauldron at the far end of the table.

Harry's green eyes widened a little bit as he lifted the hem on his robe and followed Draco's example. "Dray, Papa says not to mess with things like this..." Harry trailed off, concentrating on picking his way past a pile of parchment and two different colored pots of ink without knocking over anything, then looked back up at Draco. "We'd better hurry, lunch will be over soon and then Papa and Mama will come back."

Draco grinned at Harry. "We'll be quick, I promise." Draco grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him over to the big cauldron, wrinkling his nose. "Whatever it is, it _stinks_."

Harry leaned closer to the cauldron, sniffing with a disgusted look on his face. "It smells like that stuff Mama says they're trying to make for Uncle Remus, only they can't get it to work. "

"The wolf's pain stuff?" Draco asked, looking interestedly down at the simmering cauldron of dark grey goop.

Harry nodded, looking back up at Draco. "Yeah, Mama says it's _really_ important because Uncle Remus needs to be safe when he's wolfy, but they can't get the potion to work without making him really sick."

"Well if it smells like _that_ \--!" Draco made a disgusted face. "It's no wonder he keeps getting sick." He looked back up at Harry, a sudden idea making his eyebrows go up. "Maybe if we make it smell better, Uncle Remus won't get sick anymore."

Harry looked at Draco, surprised, then backed away a little. "Dray, remember what happened when we added those little squiggly things that smelled like licorice to the potion Papa was working on with the second years? It blew up and gave _everyone_ those long floppy purple ears, and Mama made us wear ours a whole _week_ to remember not to ever do it again! All the big kids _laughed_ at us!"

"But this is different," Draco replied immediately, "we know not to put the squiggly things in there this time! Remember what Papa said?" His face scrunched up as he tried to remember the exact words, then he said slowly, "Sometimes you have to put in something foul, to make it turn sweet." Draco's expression cleared. "Yeah, that was it!" He beamed at Harry, looking happily confident as he added, "So we find the foulest, most smelliest thing and it should make it better." He nodded rapidly, sure of his logic, and gave Harry an expectant look.

Harry gave Draco a dubious look, then turned away to move back along the table. "Okay. I'll go get the yuckiest thing I can reach, and _you_ can add it."

"Great! They'll be _glad_ we helped, Harry, you'll see." Draco grinned and followed Harry back to the chair, sitting down on the edge of the workbench. He watched interestedly as Harry climbed down and walked over to one of the shelves of ingredients.

Harry leaned close to the shelves and began to sniff at things randomly, wrinkling his nose as he caught a whiff of what smelled like Brussels sprouts. He moved to the next shelf up as he asked, "What if I can't reach the smelliest thing in here?"

Draco looked thoughtful for a moment and then hopped down into the chair and jumped to the floor, landing with a thud before he trotted quickly over to Harry. "Climb on my shoulders," He said, sounding smug as he bent to let Harry climb on. "I'll boost you up, like I did when we were getting that bottle of Glenny down."

Harry didn't move towards Draco, looking suddenly wary again. "Dray, we got into a _lot_ of trouble for that."

Draco grinned over his shoulder at Harry, his silvery-blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "Only because we got caught. We won't this time. C'mon!"

"I've got a _bad_ feeling about this," Harry said with a sigh. He unbuttoned his robes as he moved closer to his brother so that he could climb up onto Draco's shoulders, holding on to the edge of the shelves to steady himself. Harry was a little wider across the shoulders and Draco was almost an inch shorter than he was, but he knew Draco was just as strong as he was. Draco looked delicate, but he was all wiry muscle like one of hunting hounds at the Manor. "I just _know_ Mama's gonna catch us, and then we'll be in trouble for the rest of the summer."

"No we won't, not just for _this_ ," Draco replied confidently. He carefully stood up, wrapping his arms around Harry's calves to hold him steady. "We're not hurting anyone or anything and we're gonna be really careful and not make a mess."

"You better be right." Harry was obviously unconvinced as he reached up to run his fingers across the labels of bottles on the highest shelf he could reach. He passed over a dozen before he touched a dusty bottle of really slimy looking greenish things and something made him stop. "What about..." Harry trailed off, wiping off the front of the bottle and leaning closer to read the label. His robes fell closed as he slowly sounded out the words, but Harry didn't notice because he was so intent on trying to read the label. "Rrrr-heee-aaa... Ssspuh-lee-een... Whatever it is, it looks _really_ yucky."

Draco looked up, giggling a little because Harry's robe was keeping him from seeing anything. "That _sounds_ yucky enough. How does it smell?"

Harry stretched to grab the bottle, carefully taking it down and sniffing delicately at the cork. He jerked his head away quickly, almost falling off Draco's shoulders as he scrunched up his face. "Eww!" Draco staggered under him to keep his balance and Harry grabbed onto the shelf with his free hand as he added, "It smells _lots_ worse than it looks!"

"Great!" Draco replied happily, shifting under Harry again. "Come on Harry, climb down. You're heavy and I wanna see if it works."

"Okay." Harry set the bottle on the edge of a lower shelf and then slid down off Draco's shoulders. Both of them began giggling when Harry's robes got twisted up around them, and they had to take a moment to untangle them before Harry said, "We'd better hurry. Papa and Mama will be back soon, and we're supposed to be with Dobby."

"He told us to find Mama, remember?" Draco asked, grinning at Harry. He grabbed the bottle of rhea spleens with one hand and took Harry's hand with the other, dragging him back towards the workbench. "Mama will be here soon, so we did just what he told us to and we'll find her when she gets here."

"That's true, I guess," Harry agreed, following Draco and trying to decide whether or not Mama would fall for that. He didn't really think she would, but he also didn't think she would have wanted them running around lose outside looking for her and Papa, so they'd get in less trouble for being good and waiting in the classroom. Only, they weren't _quite_ being good…They were going to add something to the cauldron and that wasn't allowed, so Mama and Papa were sure to not be completely happy with them.

Draco climbed up on the workbench and then watched Harry's familiar 'we're-so-going-to-get-in-trouble-again' look getting worse for a few moments before he suddenly offered Harry his hand, shaking it to get Harry's attention. "Harry! Stop worrying about what Mama will do and come on so we can be done before she gets here."

"Okay," Harry replied, scrambling up into the chair and then taking Draco's hand and letting him pull him up onto the workbench. "Should we put just one, or more?"

Draco started towards the cauldron with the bottle of rhea spleens. "I think we should put three just to be safe. One might not be enough, and Mama says two of anything is just asking for trouble."

Harry followed Draco down the workbench, nodding. "You're right, three is a good number." Harry reached for the bottle as they stopped at the end of the table closest to the cauldron, adding, "I'll hold the bottle and you put them in."

"Okay," Draco agreed, giving Harry the bottle and letting him get a good hold on it. Draco carefully pulled out the over-sized cork, his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth as he concentrated on not making Harry spill the bottle. Draco and Harry both made faces at the awful smell that came from the open bottle when the cork finally let go with a soft pop. "Blech, those _are_ the grossest ever." Draco hurried to pick out a spleen and drop it in the cauldron, then repeated it twice more before he closed the bottle. Draco wiped his fingers on Harry's robe then, making a face. "They're all slickery."

"And smell a _lot_ worse now that we had the bottle open." Harry wrinkled his nose and then began to edge away from the potion a little as he noticed silver vapor begin to rise from it while it started making lots of tiny bubbles instead of scattered large ones. "Uhm, Draco? Maybe we should go now, and wait in our room instead. It's doing something, and that's not always good."

Draco looked warily at the bubbling potion and nodded, following Harry's lead and moving away. "Yeah, we need to get out of here." The door to the classroom opened, unnoticed by both boys, and Sev and Lily walked in as Draco said, "We don't wanna be here when Papa gets here..."

Harry nodded in agreement, then heard the door to the classroom close and hid the bottle of spleens in his robes. He turned to look towards the door, smiling at their parents and looking completely innocent as he said, "You're _back_!" Draco turned towards the door too then, plastering a sweet smile across his face as Harry added, "We were waiting for you! Can we watch you work?"

Sev's eyebrows went up as he looked at the boys, sure that they were up to something. The simple fact that they were still standing on the workbench made that a certainty, and the innocent looks made him sure he wouldn't like it. "Aren't you two supposed to be with Dobby in the kitchens?"

Harry nodded, still looking totally innocent as he replied quickly, "We were but he was _really_ busy trying to get Rupert out of the staff room so he told us to come find Mama. We knew you'd be back soon, so we came down to wait."

Sev looked at Harry, his expression bland. "Indeed."

Lily walked over towards where the boys were, seemingly nonchalant as Harry nodded some more, still looking at Sev. "Yeah Papa, Rupert was chasing this _neat_ little fairy Dobby called a dockie or something like that, and he went in the staff room after it and it flew up Professor McGonagall's skirt, and then the new Quidditch lady made her skirt disappear and McGonagall started saying stuff that sounded sort of like those words that make Mama glare at Daddy, and then Dobby made us leave."

Sev snickered, wondering where Rupert found the doxy and wishing he had seen the scene with McGonagall and Xiomara. It was sure to have been hilarious.

Draco nodded, encouraged by the laughter, and he piped up, "And he told us to find Mama and we knew you'd be here soon so here we are."

Lily gave the two boys a level look, completely unfooled by their innocent act. "And you two were just standing here, _on our workbench_ , waiting for us?"

Harry nodded, thinking that if he didn't actually _say_ they didn't do anything then he wasn't lying about it. He watched as Sev and Lily looked at each other, then Harry looked at Draco.

Draco looked at Harry and then at their parents, gauging their mother's expression for a moment before he suddenly admitted, "Alright, we wanted to see if we could help make Uncle Remus' wolf's pain potion better, so we added something to it." His face crumpled a bit as he went on, "Only now it's all _silvery_ and _bubbly,_ and we _ruined_ it _._ " Two big wet tears slid down Draco's cheeks and his voice hiccupped a bit as he added, "An--and Harry didn't want to do it, but, but ... I _made_ him." He wrapped his arms around Harry like he was trying to protect him, more tears rolling down his cheeks. "Don't punish him too, Mama! It was all _my_ fault!"

Lily moved towards the cauldron as Sev's eyebrows drew downwards into a frown. "You both know better."

Harry wrapped one arm around Draco, still holding the bottle of spleens in a fold of his robe with the other hand and looking wide-eyed at Sev with his chin trembling a little like he might also cry. "It's _not_ all Draco's fault, Papa. I picked what to add, and it didn't blow up or give us ears or anything this time!"

Sev opened his mouth again, his expression stern, but before he could say anything Lily said, "Sev, come and look at this."

Draco turned towards Harry a little more, watching their mother as Harry rubbed Draco's back with his free hand. Both of them watched Lily with wide-eyes for a moment before Harry decided he'd better tell her everything. "We didn't want it to make Uncle Remus so sick this time," he said earnestly, "and Draco 'membered that Papa says you have to add something yucky to make things better, so we got the yuckiest thing we could find and put some in." Harry offered Lily the bottle he'd been hiding. "Here's the bottle."

Draco held onto Harry's robes tightly, sniffling as he watched Lily take the bottle from Harry and then look from the cauldron to her sons with widening eyes. Harry wrapped both arms around Draco as Draco murmured, "We didn't mean to ruin it, Mama. We just wanted to help."

Sev picked up a large spoon, skimming it across the surface of the potion and then lifting the ladle to let what he'd scooped up pour back into the cauldron. His dark eyes slowly widened as he said in an awed voice, "Bloody _hell_! They did it, Lily! They fucking did it!"

Harry flinched at the bad word, whispering in Draco's ear, "It must be _really_ bad, Papa's cussing and Mama didn't yell." Draco nodded and buried his face against Harry's neck, starting to cry again as Harry watched their parents with wide eyes, wondering what their punishment would be this time.

Lily dipped another ladle into the potion and stirred it around once. "It's the right consistency," Lily said slowly, her green eyes wide, "the right color..." Harry was just beginning to think that maybe they hadn't ruined it after all when Lily looked up at her boys with sudden happy tears in her eyes and then looked at Sev again and said softly, "It's absolutely _perfect_. Just exactly as the text says it should be."

Harry's jaw dropped, his mouth hanging open a second before he asked quietly, "It is?" Draco, sniffling, rubbed his nose against Harry's neck as he turned to look at Lily, smearing snot across Harry's skin. Harry pulled away, making a disgusted face. "Eww, Dray, use a hankie or your _sleeve_ , not me!"

Draco gave Harry a suddenly sheepish look and reached up to wipe Harry's neck with his sleeve. "Sorry."

"S'okay," Harry replied, digging in the pocket of his outer robe for a wadded up hankie and then giving it to Draco as he added softly, "Here, blow your nose." Harry looked back at Papa and Mama, trying to decide whether they were going to get in trouble or not. Sev and Lily were standing close together, murmuring too quietly for Harry to hear them even just a few feet away as they stirred and sniffed at the potion.

Draco wiped Harry's neck again and then blew his nose, inadvertently bringing attention back to them. Harry got a little wide-eyed at the way their parents were looking at them but didn't say anything. Lily moved closer to them and lifted Draco down off the workbench, hugging him tightly while Sev moved to pick up Harry and hug him before he shifted Harry to rest on his hip.

Harry wrapped his arms around his Papa's neck and held on, looking hopeful as he asked, "Does this mean we're not in trouble?"

Lily laughed and Draco cuddled closer to her, sniffling as Sev smiled at Harry and replied, "Oh no, you two _are_ in trouble, most definitely. Just not for messing up the potion."

Sev kissed Harry's forehead and then watched with a smile as Harry chewed thoughtfully on his lower lip a moment. " _Did_ we ruin the potion?"

Lily smiled happily at Harry, still rubbing Draco's back to help calm him down as she shook her head. "No baby, you didn't."

Harry's expression turned suddenly hopeful. "Will it make Uncle Remus get better now?"

Sev ruffled Harry's hair, smiling. "Yes, Harry, it will."

Harry beamed at his Papa for a moment and then gave Sev's neck a tight hug as Lily rubbed Draco's back and added with a smile, "I'm proud of you two for fixing the potion, but you're still in trouble, you could have been hurt messing about in here."

"That's okay," Draco replied, lifting his head to smile back at her. "It's worth getting in trouble _this_ time."

Lily and Sev both laughed while Harry and Draco looked at each other, grinning.

Everyone had been worried about Remus and the way he'd been getting sicker and sicker. Even if they were grounded the rest of the summer, it would be worth it as long as their favorite uncle was going to get better.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Harry and Draco were sitting quietly on the end of the workbench an hour later with Rupert sprawled across Draco's lap, all of them avidly watching the two adults at the other end of the workbench.

Sev and Lily carefully ladled the still-warm potion into hand-sized bottles while debating whether or not the effectiveness of the potion would be lowered by being bottled for extended periods of time. Lily thought that after a few days the potion would begin to decay, but Sev insisted that if the spelled bottles would preserve something as corrosive as dragon bile they should preserve the Wolfsbane potion quite well. They had been arguing over it so long that they had all but a few of the two dozen bottles filled by the time the classroom door opened.

The noise made all of them look up to see Lucius holding the door open for Remus and his 'roommate', Barty. Everyone they were close to knew that the two of them were much more to each other than roommates, but Remus refused to ask any sort of commitment of Barty because of his affliction and Barty was going along with him. Barty was very in love with Remus and had been for years, and he was willing to tolerate just about anything Remus wanted him to as long as it meant they could be together.

Remus was leaning against Barty as they walked and looking pale with dark shadows under his eyes, his silver-shot auburn hair dull and hanging limply against his temples. Remus had an almost green cast to his skin and a generally unhealthy look to him, and Barty's expression gave away just how worried he was about him. The trip through the Floo had been rougher on Remus than it should have been, and it worried Barty that Remus had almost passed out from such simple magic that even a tiny child could tolerate.

Lucius gave Remus and Barty a concerned look as he closed the classroom door. "Are you sure you don't need a healing draught, Remus?"

Remus gave Lucius a slightly forced smile. "I'll be all right, Luc." Barty guided Remus to the nearest chair, even as Remus protested, "Barty, I'm _fine_ , stop worrying over me."

Barty snorted, pushing Remus down into a chair and then sitting on the edge of the desk. "You look like hell and I bet you _feel_ even worse, so just shut up and sit still."

Lily giggled at that and held a goblet for Sev to fill it as Remus made a face at Barty and said, "You're so bossy."

"Yep," Barty agreed, smirking as he tossed his head, shaking his shoulder-length rich golden hair back from his face. "But that's because I _am_ the boss."

Remus laughed, trying not to notice that it sounded a bit weak even to his own ears. "You're getting _entirely_ too sure that you're the top dog around here. Give me a few days to sleep this full moon off and then you're going to be in trouble."

"Only because I am in charge," Barty replied smugly. "And we both know I'll still be in charge next week, too."

Sev took the goblet from Lily and started towards the three by the door then, looking easily as smug as Barty. "I hope you enjoyed your advantage while it lasted, Barty."

"Definitely," Lily agreed as she followed Sev across the room, smirking. "Don't worry, Remus. He won't be feeling so much better than you do for much longer."

Remus looked from Lily to Sev and back again, his expression lighting up with hope. "Did you find the missing ingredient?"

"No," Sev replied, offering Remus the gently steaming goblet with a slight smirk and then moving to stand next to Lucius. "Harry and Draco did."

"What?!" Lucius exclaimed, looking towards his sons. They gave him almost identical angelic looks, making him snort as he looked at Sev and Lily again. "They were mucking about in your potions _again_?"

"Yes, but this time they actually fixed it," Lily replied, sliding an arm around Sev's waist and beaming at Lucius. "Draco remembered something Sev had said about adding ingredients that were foul to make a potion better. Harry picked out the nastiest thing he could reach and then they added that to the potion, and they _somehow_ managed to get it just exactly right."

Harry and Draco grinned at each other and then looked back towards the adults to see Remus, Lucius, and Barty all staring at Lily in surprise. Remus was the first to look down at the goblet Sev had given him as he asked, "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Sev replied confidently, "it is finally _exactly_ as the text describes it. The final ingredient, which the text describes only as 'bilious innard of the nandu bird', seems to be the spleen of a rhea."

"What the _hell_ is a rhea?" Remus asked, looking up from his dubious inspection of the goblet of Wolfsbane potion in surprise.

"I haven't the slightest clue beyond the fact it seems to be some sort of bird," Sev replied with a little smirk. "Rhea spleens are one of the ingredients Professor Polonius left when he retired. I have no idea where he got the bottle or how long it's been here, but I'm quite confident Slug & Jiggers can obtain more. They can get anything."

"So you think I should drink this?" Remus asked, looking curiously at Sev and Lily.

"Definitely," Lily replied as Sev nodded, both of them smiling. "It's exactly as it should be, Remy. It should work correctly this time, I'm sure of it."

Remus looked at her a moment longer and then shrugged, looking up at Barty as he said, "Wish me luck, baby."

Barty snorted. "I'm not a baby."

Remus grinned at Barty even though his pale brown eyes were a little sunken and obviously tired and sick. "You're _my_ baby."

"Lucky me." Barty smiled and leaned down to kiss Remus, and then he added, "Good luck."

Remus smiled back and then looked at the potion, muttering, "Here goes nothing." He lifted the goblet to his lips, wrinkling his nose as he slowly drank down the whole thing.

The others all watched him avidly, their eyes widening as Remus lowered the goblet. Remus' face was filling out slightly right before their eyes and getting much better color as Remus blinked and shivered, a surprised look on his face. The shadows under the werewolf's eyes faded away as the eyes themselves changed, the muddy brown color brightening to a clear amber-gold as a slow grin spread across Remus' face.

Remus stared at Sev and Lily, his eyes sparkling as he asked, "Will I feel this much better every time I drink this?"

Lily nodded as Sev added with a smile, "The effect will be cumulative as well, at least for a while. You should take it daily until there is no more improvement I think, and then you will be able to take the potion only as needed. It will help heal any damage the change has done to your system, so you should be sure to take it before and after every change."

Remus stared at Sev and Lily a moment, his eyes wide, then asked, "And this will still keep me from getting lost in the beast, too?"

"Yes, it will," Lily said, smiling. "It was the portion of the potion that protects you from the side effects of the lycanthropy itself that wasn't working, and it's most assuredly fixed now. In a week you should be perfectly healthy, other than carrying the virus itself."

"Wow," Remus said softly, looking from Lily to Sev and then back down at the empty goblet he held, his expression still completely amazed. "I'm not sure I know what it felt like to be normal anymore."

"You'll remember soon," Barty said, smiling happily as Remus looked up at him. "I can't wait to find out what it's like to have you feeling like yourself again."

Remus smiled, his eyes shining even brighter gold as he set the goblet aside. He reached for Barty's hand, lacing their fingers together and looking into Barty's eyes as he murmured, "We'll find out together."

"Oh yes," Barty agreed, beaming. He couldn't wait.

 

 ~ End


End file.
